Over breakfast (very nice, and they have Marmite!) we decided what to do today…….and it’s the Blue City. Sorry to my friends Nadia and Maggie who had requested monkeys but whoever we asked where the park is that has them gave us a different answer. I’ll try and do monkeys before we come home.

The term Blue City nowadays refers to the old central part of Jodhpur west of the clock tower, so we took what seemed the oldest Tuk-Tuk in town to get there, I honestly thought that we’d have to get out and push at one stage.

From there we headed west along a street lined with stores offering all manner of specialities, here, for example, is the local rope and string specialist.

We were regularly accosted by people wanting us to buy stuff and there was the predictable sharp young man whose Emporium supplies Prince Charles and has been written about in Tatler. We politely made our excuses and left.

The road started off reasonably wide but as is the manner of such places got progressively narrower as it went on.

As well as narrower it became duster and duster which combined with exhaust fumes from motor bikes, Tuk-Tuks and tractors did make it very uncomfortable. Further on still it became much less full on and was nicer. Incidentally we never felt other than safe and people were regularly saying hello and asking where we come from……and trying to sell us something. But if you go into what is a giant market you must expect that.

Finally we took a circuitous route back via many side alleys but were regularly able to look up and see the fort which was our reference point. We did see a young Japanese couple who were using a GPS to navigate themselves around and wondered how well that would work in very narrow alleys surrounded by high buildings. 

One of the things that we did come across is the place the local dogs go to relax after a long night’s barking and to meditate in preparation for the next night.

After a nice relaxing lunch we took another Tuk-Tuk back to the Ratan Vilas Hotel but our unfortunate driver got pulled by the local police for picking up in the wrong place for which he gets a 500 rupees fine. Here’s the paperwork being done and I  have to say that he was very philosophical about it so guess it’s an occupational hazard.

Tomorrow we are being collected from our hotel at 5.15 in the morning. Yes really. And will take the early express train to Jaipur where we stay for a whole week without having to pack everything again, Hooray. 

I hope that pictures are back in this blog. My thanks to everyone who tried to help me with this. I think I’ve found a fix for the problem but won’t know for sure until I try posting.

26 February 2017